New dates for EQE 2022 - spread over 2 weeks and earlier than previously announced

 The dates for EQE 2022 have been published on the EQE website (Notices page), here (Notice of 19 April 2021).

The complete EQE does no longer take place in a single week (in 2011: Pre-Exam on Mon, D on Tue, A on Wed, B on Thu, C on Fri), but is spread over two weeks: the main exam papers on Tue and Thu, the Pre-Exam on Fri of the second week.

Compared to the earlier announcement of 15.11.2018 (wherein the EQE was planned from 21.03.2022 to 24.03.2022), the EQE 2022 starts two weeks earlier, with the D paper on 08.03.22. 

The Pre-Exam will take place after all main exam papers, rather than on the day before the main exam.

Although not yet officially communicated, it made be assumed that the exam will again be online in 2022 and will have papers of similar character as in 2021.

Note: the announcement of 15.11.2018 also already included dates for EQE 2023 (06.0.2023 - 09.03.2023); these will presumably also be changed.

e-EQE 2021 - emails from candidates to EQE Secretariat will be forwarded to the Examination Board

 

EQE goes digital - the official EPO news message

Yesterday, the EPO issues a news message on the website on the EQE. 

It was a major achievement to move from an EQE that is fully paper based -the exam papers as well as the material you can bring being only on paper, and a handwritten answer- with candidates sitting in about 8, some of them big, exam locations scattered around Europe - to an online e-EQE in a secured browser -the exam papers as pdfs and/or (in full or in part) onscreen, legal texts partially online, a typed answer in a basic editor, online invigilation-. 

But... the level of praise and the absence of reflection as to the growing pains and serious problems in the press release does not really feel justice to how candidates and tutors, as well as other stakeholders, have experienced the preparation phase and the exam itself. The message seems to have been drafted by a Public Relations department and it seems not to have been checked for the sensitivity of the issues that arose in the preparation of and during the exams, of the impact that such a message has on candidates, some of which feel that their voices and experiences have been ignored.

In particular, the press release downgrades the issue at D1-1 to "solved quickly within a few minutes". That does not really reflect the real situation where some candidates were affected for the whole of D1-1, at least, and where an additional 30 minutes was awarded but not received by all candidates (as a Flowlock browser refresh was needed to actually receive the 30 minutes), and where the break schedule was changed with a sever impact on the length of the lunch break (from planned 45 minutes to only 25)... I refer to our Good luck blog, our First impressions blog for many comments from candidates, as well as to our D1 blog.  Luckily, the Examination Board did react in a fast and appropriate way with a message on the e-EQE webpages, on the next day, with the guarantee that no candidate will be disadvantaged as a result during the marking process. , as is also indicated in the press release.

The Press Release is show below in full (no changes made):

EQE goes digital

8 March 2021

Nearly 4 000 candidates, 5 exams split over 11 flows, 130 exam pages in a choice of languages, 24 hours of examination in 5 days, 80 online invigilators, 400 people involved in preparations, a secured examination environment, and audio and image supervision: From 1 to 5 March, the EPO successfully held the inaugural e-EQE. For the first time ever, candidates sat the exam online at a place of their choice anywhere in the world.

Good luck to all EQE 2021 candidates!

We wish all candidates that sit one or more EQE papers next week good luck / bonne chance / gute Fahrt!

Our EQE blogs will be open for your comments and opinions w.r.t. the Pre-Exam, A, B, C and D shortly after the exams. We will post our (provisional) answers to the various papers shortly after the exam. To facilitate the discussions, we will also post copies of the papers as soon as possible after we received reasonably clean copies.

Do not post any comments as to the merits of the answers of a certain exam paper/flow on the blogs while an exam/flow is still ongoing. Also, do not post the invigilator password or anything else that may be considered the breach of the exam regulations, instructions to the candidates, code of conducts, etc (see, e.g.,  e-EQE website and the emails from the EQE secretariat).

All candidates, as well as tutors who helped candidates prepare for EQE 2021, are invited to contribute to the discussions on our EQE blogs! You can post your comments in English, French or German. You are invited to post your comments under your real name, but it is also possible to use a nickname if you wish to hide your identify.

The DeltaPatents team

Donot forget your final system test: Mock 3 is this Tuesday, 23 Feb!

If you could not test your e-EQE setup with Mock 2, or you had trouble during Mock 2, do not forget to take the opportunity for a final system check on Tuesday 23 February!

Candidates received information about Mock 3 in an email from 12 February 2021. That email indicated that the flow information email from Wiseflow for Mock 3 will be sent on 22 February.

If you run into problems due to lack of admin privileges (e.g., when using a company computer), it is recommended to have another computer (e.g., your private laptop or desktop) available for Mock 3. You can then switch to your private computer if it fails on your company computer - and then use our private computer for the real e-EQE. Use Mock 3 to test what works best for you!! 

Refer to our earlier blog on Mock 3 here if you want to have more tips and want to post comments. 

You may also wish to check:

• our other blog posts on Mock 2 in the blogs for the specific papers (Pre-Exam, A, B, C, D),
• our blog post on Mock 1, 
• our blog posts on the e-EQE requirements, 
• our blog posts on the FAQs (here and here), information sessions and  Information on the schedule,
• our earlier blog posts on our EQE blog. 

If you wish to comment on Mock 3, please post your comments to our Mock 3 blog.

Calendars for EQE 2021 (Pre-Exam and paper D) available

 The Calendars for EQE 2021 (Pre-Exam and paper D) are available on the EQE website (here):

• calendar for Pre-Exam 2021 - calendars of years 2020 and 2021
• calendar for Paper D 2021 - calendars of years 2019, 2020 and 2021

Also, the Notice of 18 July 2013 from the Examination Board on the Use of calendars in Paper D and Pre-examination has been re-published on the same page, to remind candidates that:

• For the Pre-examination and Paper D, calendars will continue to be provided to candidates as part of the examination papers and will continue to be a correct calendar for the respective year (e.g. 1st January 2014 will be a Wednesday).
• However, the calendars might not necessarily cover all EPO closing days. This means that some days, on which the EPO filing offices are actually closed, might not be indicated as closing days in the calendars.
• Comment from the blog editor: especially so-called Bridging days are usually not provided in the EQE calendars; but also some closure days due to national/local holidays in Munich, The Hague or Berlin are sometimes not present. So never rely on your own knowledge, but use the EQE calendars when answering.
• For future examinations, candidates shall answer the papers solely on the basis of the calendars in the examination papers.

You can download and print the calendars already now and put them with your EQE reference materials!

e-EQE 2021: Mock 3 on 23 February

 In today's Virtual Classroom session on e-EQE 2021, it was announced that there will be a Mock 3:

• On 23 February
• 1 main exam flow (morning)
• 1 pre-exam flow (afternoon)
•  Purpose:  allow final test of equipment
• Will include camera, invigilation, ZenDesk.
• They are not new papers to do; the aim is just to test the system
• Invitation will be send to all candidates in time - do not send any request to the EQE helpdesk

Click on "Read more" for:

• Text of email from EQE secretariat about Mock 3
• Updated information on e-EQE website